December 19, 2025 O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, freeThine own from Satan’s tyranny;From depths of hell Thy people save,And give them victory o’er the grave. One of my favorite activities is hiking, and one of my favorite objects to observe while hiking is trees. Trees amaze me, from their intricate root systems to theContinueContinue reading “O Antiphons of Advent: Root of Jesse”
Category Archives: spirituality
Advent’s O Antiphons: Wisdom
December 17, 2025 O come, O Wisdom from on high,who ordered all things mightily;to us the path of knowledge showand teach us in its ways to go. This last week before Christmas Day has always been mystical to me, a thin place of sorts, where we move willingly or not toward the Winter Solstice, theContinueContinue reading “Advent’s O Antiphons: Wisdom”
Saturday of Holy Week ~ Silence
April 19, 2025 For years now, every Saturday before Easter Sunday, the final words of Prince Hamlet as he lay dying come to me: “The rest is silence.” In regard to Holy Week, the false conviction, illegal trial, and immoral death sentence of an innocent man are over. And so we wait . . .ContinueContinue reading “Saturday of Holy Week ~ Silence”
Friday of Holy Week ~ Forsaken
April 18, 2025 With the current events of the world, and especially in my own country, the States, feeling forsaken is becoming a more regular occurrence, forsaken by friends, by representatives, by the president. Then there are the forsaken graduate students who are being unconstitutionally jailed and deported, forsaken federal workers who no longer haveContinueContinue reading “Friday of Holy Week ~ Forsaken”
Thursday of Holy Week: Remembering to Wash Feet
April 17, 2025 Today’s appointed gospel is from John 13:1-15, where at the Passover dinner (the Last Supper), Jesus washes the feet of his twelve closest friends. A colleague and I once discussed why foot washing isn’t considered a sacrament in the traditional Church. The basis for the two sacraments that Protestants observe, baptism andContinueContinue reading “Thursday of Holy Week: Remembering to Wash Feet”
Wednesday of Holy Week ~ Betrayal
April 15, 2025 Betrayal. One of the harshest words and most painful actions. We’ve no doubt all experienced a heart-rending betrayal at some time in our lives, and we’re fortunate if it’s only been one. And, we’ve probably all betrayed someone else (or ourselves) at some time in our lives. Today’s gospel passage (John 13:ContinueContinue reading “Wednesday of Holy Week ~ Betrayal”
Tuesday of Holy Week ~ The Invitation
April 15, 2025 The priest and theologian Henri Nouwen wrote, “Pay attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God is up to in your life.” I wonder what the Greeks in today’s gospel passage discerned when they met Jesus as described in John 12: 20-33. After askingContinueContinue reading “Tuesday of Holy Week ~ The Invitation”
Monday of Holy Week ~ Do Not Be Afraid
April 14, 2025 I keep a stack of notecards with quotations on them that have touched me over the years. Today’s message is, “Do not be afraid,” mentioned as early as the Book of Genesis when God makes a covenant with Abraham all the way through scripture to the Book of Revelation: “Do not be afraid;ContinueContinue reading “Monday of Holy Week ~ Do Not Be Afraid”
The God-kiss
March 11, 2025 Some years ago, a term came to my mind that describes the serendipitous, often unnoticed, gifts that Love provides us. I call them “God-kisses.” They’ve always been, always will be, yet how often we miss them. Yesterday, I received such a kiss, though I almost stepped on it. I was walking throughContinueContinue reading “The God-kiss”
Advent 2024: Passion and Dream
Advent Day Twenty, December 20, 2024 “The Christmas stories are not about a spectacular series of miraculous events that happened in the past that we are to believe in for the sake of going to heaven. Rather, they are about God’s passion, God’s dream, for a transformed earth.” Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, TheContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: Passion and Dream”
Spirit Reflections 